Abstract

Packet switching is an attractive method for transferring digital information across high-speed communications networks, and it is widely used in local area networks (LAN’s) and metropolitan area networks (MAN’s). A LAN or MAN that uses nodes that are transparent to the optical-information bandwidth¹ has several advantages over an equivalent electronic network, including flexibility of data format and the ability to avoid electronic speed bottlenecks. It has been shown² that the use of an optically transparent photonic packet switch permits data-transfer rates for the information content of a packet (the payload) to be made independent of the address header data rate. Thus a network constructed with optically transparent nodes can use relatively inexpensive nodes that operate at low bit rates while higher-speed nodes can communicate at much higher data rates.

© 1993 Optical Society of America